Jets enlist ex-military members to help build unity and leadership with team getaway

PHILADELPHIA — It started with a cold call in February, weeks after the Jets’ season had collapsed amid locker-room turmoil.

What resulted is a season-long arrangement between the Jets and a group of former military special forces operators, with the specific charge of advising on leadership and team-building.

“Our goal is to help them win a championship,” said Jason Van Camp, the former Green Beret who founded the “Mission Essential” program nearly two years ago. “Coach (Rex) Ryan said at the end of last year, ‘I lost the pulse of the team. I need to get a better handle on the chemistry issues.’ That’s why he hired us. To help him do that.”

Van Camp — a West Point graduate who served 12 years in the Army and earned a Bronze Star with valor — did not want to reveal the specifics of each training session, to preserve the privacy and personal nature of the event. But he explained that the program simulated real-life experiences each of the former military members went through in combat.

“We’re not in those same situations, thank goodness,” Ryan said. “But (football) is still all about teamwork, still about trying to accomplish certain missions we were set on, and relying on each other. Those are some strong messages they delivered to us.”

After the players were walked through the scenarios, the Mission Essential leaders shared how they reacted, the decisions they made, and what they learned about themselves on the battlefield. Combat-wounded veterans were part of the group each time, including a double amputee on Wednesday.

One theme covered was “never leave a man behind,” a military credo printed on signs that now hang inside the Jets’ Florham Park practice facility.

Players were evaluated for how they performed both as individuals and as teammates. For instance, Van Camp said, “When you’re not in charge, do you try to take charge and undermine the guy who is in charge?” Ryan and general manager Mike Tannenbaum will receive a “robust packet” on the players’ performances.

“We didn’t want to think, at the end of the day, we were going to hand them a sheet of paper with a stamp on it that said, ‘Congrats, you’re a leader,’ ” Van Camp said. “For us, that’s (nonsense), and it’s not going to happen. Leadership develops daily, not in a day, so we’re hired by the Jets for the entire year. We’re going to be completely embedded with them.”

Quarterback Mark Sanchez wore a black Mission Essential hat in the post-game locker room Thursday. All-Pro cornerback Darrelle Revis said the training not just built camaraderie, it helped players be “ready to handle” certain situations that could come up during a season.

Van Camp, whose group signs exclusive contracts with college and professional sports teams, cold-called Dave Szott, the Jets’ director of player development, last winter. They connected on the phone, and Szott invited Van Camp to make a pitch to the team.

Van Camp said Tannenbaum told him it was the best presentation they had heard. A week later, his group was hired.

Training continues Monday, a two-hour seminar as part of an NFL life skills event. But the relationship will be longer-lasting. Small groups of players will be assigned a “personal leadership guru” they can lean on for advice through the season.

Van Camp said he and his partners are working “around the clock” to brainstorm exercises, challenges and shared experiences that bring out the best version of each Jets coach and player. Their ideas stem from an introductory conversation in which the Mission Essential leaders asked the coaches, “What does leadership mean to you?”

That’s a question Ryan pondered in a lengthy self-evaluation period this offseason, after missing the playoffs for the first time in his head coaching tenure. He is always searching for new ways to connect and motivate his players, never shy to bring in outside influences.

Mission Essential is the latest. Van Camp said Ryan told him as long as he’s head coach, he’d like to put every new coach and player through this “Jets basic training.”

“It’s very innovative, and risky, but it’s going to pay off for him,” Van Camp said. “You have U.S. special-forces soldiers working their (butts) off to make this happen for him and for the New York Jets.”